A variety of methods of folding food products, such as burritos, are known in the industry. For example, manual folding operations can be used. Manual folding operations can be labor intensive and involve a high degree of dexterity. The time undertaken by an operator to fill and fold, e.g., a tortilla, to produce a folded food product also limits the production rate where the folding operations are carried out by hand.
High speed food product folding machines are also known in the industry, such as those of U.S. Pat. No. 5,912,035 (the “'035 patent”) and U.S. Pat. No. 7,487,718 (the “'718 patent”).
FIGS. 1 and 2 show an example food product folding machine 10 (hereinafter “machine 10”) known in the industry. The machine 10 can include a plurality of platform assemblies 12 for folding the food product (not shown) which travels along a conveyor system 14. The machine 10 includes curved rods 16 extending along the production path and the platform assemblies 12 include followers 18 which travel along the curved rods 16. As the platform assemblies 12 travel along the conveyor system 14, the curved rods 16 actuate the followers 18 such that the movable sections of the platform assemblies 12 can be actuated to create folds of the food product. The machine 10 can include a food filling dispenser 20 for dispensing food filling onto, e.g., a tortilla. The machine 10 can further include a liquid dispenser 22, e.g., a water dispenser, including a solenoid and a nozzle to spray the tortilla after predetermined folds of the tortilla to maintain the folded position of the tortilla.
However, the machine 10 may take up space for installation and utilization and has a large food product production capacity. Also, a machine of the '035 Patent includes a plurality of curved rods 16 which extend the length of the production path for folding of the product.
Thus, despite efforts to date, a need remains for a food product folder with a smaller installation and operation footprint and/or a reduced food product production capacity. These and other considerations are addressed by embodiments of the multi-stage rotary food product folder of the present disclosure.